


A King and His Lovers

by Luxillianite



Series: The King's Company [2]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: AH OT6, Fantasy AU, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-26
Updated: 2015-03-26
Packaged: 2018-03-19 18:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3620574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luxillianite/pseuds/Luxillianite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Geoff is fuming and Jack just wants to help him calm down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A King and His Lovers

Geoff was a hard man to anger. He never sweated the small things and even larger concerns were handled with restrained concern or intrigue. Even when the man had been informed there had been a mermaid luring away sailors he had considered it a good opportunity for a small adventure and had wound up with possibly the most nautically inclined escort for his ship he could have asked for thanks to it. He simply took everything in such stride that it really was no wonder he was king. For everyone there was a limit though and Geoff’s was met when others spoke ill of his lovers.

 

So as Jack sat and watched his leader pace furiously to and fro in his personal library, spitting fire and brimstone and explicits that would make even Michael blush, he only had to guess which of them the nobles had thought they were whispering about.

"Geoff, you need to take a moment to breath." He calmly stated before deeming to play the guessing game with his ill tempered lover. "Was it Gavin?"

The foreign princeling was usually a subject of interest among the nobles. He was from across the ocean and so clearly different with his accent, his speech, his mannerisms and so the list went on. They spoke all the time in hushed voices of whatever would drive the young prince from his home isles and not only into Geoff’s service as his best archer but also into his bed. Much of it revolved around scandals and banishment from his home, how his brother had felt threatened for their throne and ran Gavin out with promises of death, or that Gavin had simply been a token of a trade between the two nations and in return for no harm coming to their traders Gavin would serve as Geoff’s personal servant.

The theories went on and on and Jack found them all ridiculous when he knew the truth. Gavin had simply not felt up to taking the throne and had easily deferred the crown to his home to his brother, Daniel, and happily took the the title of prince. He assisted his brother in ruling but took it upon himself to travel and in that adventuring across the sea he had come across the company of Geoff and fell in step easily with the man, their relationship blossoming naturally over the course of their escapades until Gavin was spending almost all of his time with his new family ‘across the pond’.

"No." Geoff snapped roughly as he turned on his heel, leaving a fresh scuff upon the floor in the wake of his boots.

"Ray then?"

Another foreign beauty in their midst Ray drew more negative whispers than Gavin. He was young and painted by the sun of his home and carefree and simply everything that nobles were not. Jack had heard the murmured stories that he had been a gift from savages on one of Geoff’s many ventures at sea. That he was some exotic whore bathed in flowers and little better than a toy meant for their king and his personal court to dally with when they felt the urge.

More than once Jack had felt his own hackles rise at the stories, all of them had, but it was rare nobles would allow their whispers to be caught around them ever since a particularly violent retaliation by Geoff himself when a noble had not only had his nose broken but had been completely expelled from the court. For all the trouble and dramatics though the one to handle the slander the best was Ray himself. The youngest simply laughed off the stories and joked about such things. As he put it, so long as he knew the truth they could make up whatever they wanted.

It was this gentle and fluid nature that had cause Geoff to become endeared to the boy he had found an island of tropical flowers and vicious storms. Ray had been alone, a natural loner who didn’t draw the particular interest of the rest of the islanders. Geoff had been the one to see how the isolation had troubled the young man and had been swift to take him into the fold, returning the castle with the boy under his wing like a stray kitten and it hadn’t taken long for that stray too happily be welcomed right into the heart of their little family.

Geoff snarled, so much as a mention of slander against his precious flower doing well to set him off.

"No."

Well the list was getting shorter and Jack frowned.

"Michael?"

The young warrior was always well received among the people, at least the nobles feigned as much for fear of having their heads caved in by the brutal young man, but stories were beginning to spread. With the fact of Michael’s curious dancing and intimate connections with the heavens becoming common knowledge a few interesting theories were blossoming. He was a false prophet whispering what to say in Geoff’s ear. He was a gypsy working some ill beguiling spell over the king or a seed for an usurper to usher in when Geoff was under control.

The tales caused Jack to be nothing but amused as Michael’s strong ties to the pantheon had only recently come to light, along with his dancing, and they were something the fiery red head only spoke of when they were of great concern to the whole family and for the two times that he had brought his visions to open discussion their revelations had not lead Geoff astray.

It had been nothing they had expected from the boy they had rescued from slavers all that time ago but they had known little of the north beyond the mountain ridge at the time and had never heard of the village of dancers who spoke to the gods. Michael had just been a soul to be protected from the evils of the world that had removed him from home and one Geoff had been unwilling to let go. The boy had found a spot in Geoff’s home as a warrior and then a lover and, now, the occasional spiritual adviser.

"No." Geoff snorted and turned once more. His steps carried less hurried anger and it looked like the pacing was just working to keep the tattooed man from being still and breaking something important now.

"So, it’s Ryan?"

The mage had a near cult following when it came to distrust and stories about him. It was not even entirely the nobles who spoke such things but the common folk as well who found fear in his powers. The man was hard to ignore and honestly Jack found himself disturbed by Ryan’s casual acts of exaggerated psychosis but he knew it was more for the amusement of the mage who was so delighted as the moments of fright or otherwise his behavior brought.

Demon servant, harbinger of the dark arts, foul sorcerer. Ryan had been called this and a multitude more. He would ignore it all, or scare off those loitering with a glimmer of magic or muttered insults in a dead language he would pass off as a spell, because he carried the same philosophy as Ray. So long as he knew the truth he didn’t care what simple minded men thought. They were nothing more than whispers to him where his lover’s words were the roars he drowned it all out in.

To Jack it almost seemed like Ryan had been with their family for ages but he had to remind himself that Ryan was possibly the newest addition their group. He had hardly looked the mystical sort when they had come across him, near death and almost in tatters upon the winding roads of the East, and it being only Geoff and Jack traveling at the time they hadn’t hesitated to stop and aid the man. They had quickly put whatever skill they had in doctoring to the test as they patched multiple wounds and mended the other into a state resembling something decent and when he had come to they had continued on with offers of water and food until at last he could sit properly and speak with them, offering his story in repayment.

He had not spoken at first of his powers, instead portraying himself as a high member of the court of a near by kingdom, and thus he told the story of how he had been responsible for many powerful secrets at the cost of many calling him mad until the day that ignorance had forced the hands of those around him. His people and peers had put him in shackles and took to unleashing his most carefully tended secret, a beast with a blood lust for men and the pitiful voice of one that made all those that listened believe it was nothing more than an innocent locked away to endure tortures. They had set it free and the kingdom had been awash in red, a massacre he had barely escaped with his life.

Geoff hadn’t missed a beat when he invited Ryan into his home, offering him shelter and safety in return for teachings of such beasts and mysteries, a deal only made to ease Ryan’s suspicion of ‘unwarranted’ kindness, which the stranger agreed to eventually. They had welcomed him into their home and he was greeted warmly by the others. The mage had fallen easily into a routine about the castle, silent to start though gaining voice with comfort, and as he relaxed and healed the constraints upon his magics and fell and he had soon been showing off spectacular displays of his power which the young ones adored and Geoff applauded in his company. He had been the last to join their bed but he was welcomed just as warmly as the first and making disrespect towards him just as venomous a topic for Geoff as any other.

"No!" The dark haired man brought his boot down roughly, rattling everything within the room, as he scrubbed a hand over his face and suppressed a growl. That answer left Jack puzzled as to what could have possibly upset the king in such a way.

"Then what’s got your hackles up?"

At this Geoff exploded, the lock finally coming off the boiling pot lid.

"Those sorry bastards don’t know to keep their mouths closed! They’ll snap up anything like damn starved wolves if it means entertainment for them. Stupid shallow fuckers! They should know not to talk about my goddamn lovers. Those assholes should KNOW not to talk about you!"

"Me?" Jack asked in confusion.

"Yes! Those damn narrow minded shit heads should know not to talk about you! After all this time!"

Geoff continued to rant and rave and stamp about like a bull blinded by red while Jack sat in his chair, stunned into silence. He drew noble’s remarks? What could they possibly have to say about him when Jack couldn’t even think to put himself on the list of candidates for such things.

"What do they say?" He asked quietly, still rather stunned over the news.

"Don’t make me repeat it."

"No I want to know."

Geoff finally sagged, the fire finally at bay and leaving the man looking tired and more than a little hurt. Jack bid him to sit and the king slunk forward, collapsing on the long couch that often served as his bed after long nights of work. He reached out over the arm and took his lover’s hand in his own, running his other through his hair.

"I hear them all the time, making claims that you have no right to be by my side. It’s all the same every time that you’ve somehow allowed my to sink into depravity as I take lovers and you allow demons and gypsies into my bed. That you have no gentry blood to speak of to give you right as my closest consort and that you’ve failed in your job as that with all you allow me to do and who you’ve allowed into my bed. It’s all insane."

He recited these with a good deal of venom still in his words alongside a great regret. It tore Geoff apart to say all that.

"I never knew they actually spoke about me. I always thought I just blend into the background behind everything else."

At that the dark haired ruler turned hard slate eyes on his lover and tightened his hold upon his hand.

"Jack, really? You probably stand out the most of all of us."

The idea seemed absurd and drew a snort of amusement from the bearded man.

"No it’s true." Geoff insisted. "You are the most notable person here! You draw eyes all the time and it drives all of us crazy because you’re our rock, you’re MY rock, and we’d be nothing without you here balancing all of our insanity together and making something that worked. Honestly if I didn’t have you by my side during meeting I’d have killed half the court my now."

Jack shook his head and kissed his lover’s knuckles.

"Please, you have more control than that."

"No I don’t!" He fussed. "I hate about every one of those bastards and I would have run them through a long time ago if you didn’t help me. It’s why I get so angry at them for disrespecting you because you don’t just ‘allow’ me to do shit! I know if something was a bad idea or going to put me at risk you’d floor my ass before I even got out the door. You help me think clearly, you always have, and you do the same for everyone of us, and the kingdom would be in some major trouble if it wasn’t for you because the gods know I don’t know what the hell I’m doing."

"Geoff, calm down. Take a few deep breaths, I’ll believe you but you need to give yourself a moment."

Bidding his instruction the king quieted and let his breathing slow and return to normal.

"See. That’s what I mean. You deal with my babbling when I go off the deep end and you keep me from damn near passing out when I do it."

"Oh please, it’s what any of us would do for you."

"But it’s what you do best." Geoff added softly, smiling to the lover he’s had at his side the longest. "And I’m not going to have some primped up shit stain telling off my first love, or any of them."

"You’re a hopeless romantic, I hope you know." Jack stated, a smile upon his lips as any trace of anger seemed to have at last left the king.

"Yeah well you bring that out in me." He retorted with a soft laugh, returning the earlier gesture he was shown and kissing Jack’s knuckles, the act filled with warmth and love.


End file.
